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Sunday, May 25, 2014

Landon Donovan thinks he 'abolutely deserved' to play in Brazil

Donovan spoke to reporters following a training session with his club team, the Los Angeles Galaxy, and not surprisingly, his views were in stark contrast to the U.S. manager's.
"I think if I'm being judged solely on what happened in camp, then I absolutely deserve to be going to Brazil," he said.
There have been all kinds of theories floating around about why Donovan was omitted. There have been rumors, none confirmed, that Donovan wasn't in shape, and had performed poorly in training. Donovan insisted that wasn't the case.
"Based on my performances leading up to camp, based on my preparation for the camp, based on my fitness, based on my workload, based on the way I trained and played in camp, I not only thought I was a part of the 23, I thought I was in contention to be starting," he said. "That's why this has all been pretty disappointing."
On Friday, Klinsmann, without going into details, said his decision to cut Donovanwas simply a case of other players being ahead of the Galaxy attacker. He mentioned how Donovan's game had changed in the last few years, but insisted his decision was performance-based.
"The ones we chose are just that inch ahead of ones we didn't choose in performance terms," Klinsmann said on Friday.